Nintendo's biggest hardware failure is coming back in early 2026

The Virtual Boy is coming back in early 2026 to blur the eyesight of an entirely new generation.

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Nintendo has made the perplexing decision to resurrect its biggest-ever hardware failure, the Virtual Boy, as part of its Switch Online classics program. The headset released in the 1990s and was touted as an early form of virtual reality, but there's just one problem: The screen is only in red. People would complain about eye strain, and ultimately the system failed and became a rare miss for the company. It's somewhat similar to Nintendo's Labo, a cardboard spiritual successor aimed at what the Virtual Boy was trying to achieve.

This version of the Virtual Boy isn't the actual system. It's just an empty stylized case with red viewfinder goggles that you slot your Switch into, just like the Labo kits. Nintendo will release 14 Virtual Boy games (which is nearly the full library, there were only 22 games made for the system) on February 17, 2026 for Switch Online Expansion Pack subscribers, but the mock-up headset will come later.

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Nintendo has said in the past that it plans to add more value to its Switch Online subscription service, and the Virtual Boy's inclusion is a pure flash of nostalgia more than anything--a quaint look at the oddities of Nintendo's earlier days of gaming dominance, and the rare miss that threw the company for a loop.

The Virtual Boy didn't even reach 1 million sales worldwide, reportedly only breaking 770K unit sales, and the headset was ultimately discontinued just a year after release.

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